Gerard Way Describes His ‘Spider-Verse’ Contributions

About six months ago, Marvel Comics announced an event called ‘Spider-Verse’ that would bring every Spider-Man ever together for the fight of a lifetime. United against a common foe in Morlun, different versions of the wall-crawlers find themselves united against extermination. Though it would be difficult to name everyone involved in this upcoming tale, we already know that we’ll see the likes of Spider-Man 2099, Scarlet Spider, Iron Spider, Spider-Man 1602, and Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham. However, a few web-slingers that we’ve never seen will enter the fray as well, and that’s where former My Chemical Romance front man Gerard Way comes in.

Now that the musician has won an Eisner for ‘The Umbrella Academy’, penned it’s sequel ‘The Umbrella Academy: Dallas’, and expanded on his band’s mythology with ‘The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,’ Way is moving on to the Marvel Universe and creating his very own version of Spider-Man with artist Jake Wyatt. The team will introduce their Spider-Man in ‘Edge of Spider-Verse’ #5, a series that has check ins with various spider-heroes and brings them together for the oncoming storm that is quickly approaching in ‘Amazing Spider-Man.’ But before we meet her, Way and Wyatt spoke with Marvel.com to give us a taste of what to expect, starting with a plot:

“In a futurist city fairly different from the New York we are familiar with, our version of Spider-Man takes the shape of a government project: SP//dr. SP//dr is comprised of three vital components: a pilot, a machine, and a radioactive sentient spider acting as one half of the brain that makes it all work. Peni Parker is a young girl, who, left parentless, is adopted by her Aunt May and Uncle Ben, the two heads of the SP//dr project. When they realize Peni is the only one who can successfully pair with SP//dr, they make the unorthodox decision to train her as SP//dr’s newest pilot.”

Now, if you’re thinking that Way is drawing inspiration from the highly popular Jaeger/Kaiju film ‘Pacific Rim,’ you wouldn’t be too far off. The writer revealed that he was heavily influenced by the work of ‘AKIRA’ creator Katsuhiro Otomo and Paul Pope’s work on ‘THB’ and ‘Batman: Year 100’ while creating this story and when editor Nick Lowe introduced him to Wyatt, he knew that his vision could be realized. Though this sounds like a very different Spidey than we’re used to, the artist explains that their hero will have a lot of familiar facets to her character:

“We’ve been talking about a young lady of Japanese heritage, early teens, piloting a spider-interfaced mech suit. On the surface she’s very different from Peter in a lot of obvious ways. But Spider-Man comics, for me, are all about maintaining a sense of self and values against the disruptive influence of power. From MJ’s celebrity to Otto’s genius, to Peter’s abilities, it’s about this struggle to control these things, to temper them with a higher purpose, lest they control you. And our girl’s gonna have to fight that same fight. It’s a universal, very human struggle, and it’s what makes Spider-Man resonate.”

Before explaining his deep connection and abiding love for Spider-Man, Way also shared that he would be introducing new versions of classic villains for SP//dr to face as well. No word on who those bad guys will be just yet, but I have a feeling that the Green Goblin could lend himself very nicely to this world that this team has developed as another piece to the ‘Spider-Verse’ puzzle.

What do you think of Gerard Way and Jake Wyatt’s version of Spider-Man called SP//dr? Are you excited to pick up ‘Edge of Spider-Verse’ #5 and meet Peni Parker? Let us know in the comment section.

Ben Silverio

Ben F. Silverio received a degree from Drexel University in the Screenwriting and Playwriting Program with a minor in Television Production. While at Drexel, Ben co-founded and co-hosted a film review show called The Pretentious Film Majors, which has evolved into a multi-format form of entertainment including blogs, podcasts on iTunes, articles in the school paper, and a potential tv show. Now armed with an extremely expensive piece of paper, Ben can begin climbing the treacherous ladder of the entertainment industry, which he hopes to do while streaming WWE wrestling matches, reading Marvel comics, and blogging about the excessive amount of movies and tv shows that he watches, all on the iPhone that is permanently attached to his hand.